Mastering the Shakespeare Audition A Quick Guide to Performance Success

by Soto-Morettini, Donna

• ISBN13: 9781474266857
• ISBN10: 1474266851
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2016-11-17
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama

Summary

Most actors have no idea where to start in preparing a Shakespeare monologue. Yet success in application to drama schools – as well as for professional gigs – often relies on a well-delivered classical monologue. Mastering the Shakespeare Audition focuses on serious preparation for the Shakespeare monologue, making it easy for actors to analyse and master their chosen monologue in time for an upcoming audition.

Following the author's unique quick-start plan of reading and exercises, an actor will be shown how to get ready to perform in their audition with confidence. Each section provides a set of progressive and clearly marked exercises, detailing the time necessary both to read and to complete the exercises. In addition, at the end of each section, there is set of extended exercises for those who aren't in a time-critical audition situation, which allows a deeper understanding of the ideas and skills discussed.

The result of years of teaching and research, and featuring complementary online video, Mastering the Shakespeare Audition provides a hands-on set of techniques, framed in a focused, time-sensitive process, to help the actor immediately prepare for their upcoming audition. It is ideal for either young actors who are approaching Shakespeare for the first time, or for experienced actors who may need a refresher in advance of an audition requiring a Shakespeare monologue.

Author Biography

Donna Soto-Morettini is the author of Popular Singing, The Philosophical Actor, and Mastering the Audition: How to Perform Under Pressure.For many years she worked as a professional singer and actress in Southern California and throughout the western United States. She holds a PhD from Oxford University, and has been training professional actors and singers for twenty-five years. She has served as Director of Drama for the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Head of Acting and Dance for Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, and Head of Acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Along with her many years of training actors, she has worked as a Casting Director and Performance Coach for television for Andrew Lloyd Webber and the BBC on How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria, Any Dream Will Do, I'd Do Anything, and Over the Rainbow.She has also worked as performance coach for ITV's Pop Star to Opera Star and Superstar, and currently works as Casting Director for BBC's The Voice.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Turning the Whole Process on its Head
Phase One: Acquiring the Tools: Sound and Sense
1. Speech Sound: Diction/Consonants, Sustain/Vowels, Laban Efforts
Exercises
2. Meter Analysis and Why It Matters
Exercises
3. Getting to the 'Bare Bones' of the Speech
Exercises
4. I'm Not in a Hurry:
Using Verbs to Create the 'Bare Bones'
Getting Comfortable with Shakespeare's Syntax
Twitter and Meter / or / More Exercises in Diction, Sustain, Laban
Phase Two: Choosing and Preparing the Monologue
1. Using 'Bare Bones' to Choose a Monologue
2. Exploring All the Sound you Can
3. Adding Meter Mechanically then Organically
4. Drawing the Monologue
5. I'm Not in a Hurry
The Physical Life of the Piece
The Pitfalls of No Fear Shakespeare
The Contrasting Monologue
Phase Three: Rehearsing and Performing the Monologue
1. The Gunfighter's Dilemma
2. Put Down the Text, Pick Up the Picture
3. Externalizing Everything and Creating the 'Target(s)'.
4. How to Leave Your Feelings Alone : Music, Sound, and 'The Target'
5. The Mental Game